WHY DID THE USA JOIN WORLD WAR I?

When World War I began in 1914, the United States had no intention of joining the conflict. The United States had long practised a foreign policy of isolationism in which it separated itself from the rest of the world and managed its own affairs. When Austria-Hungary’s archduke Franz Ferdinand was assassinated by Serbian nationalists and war erupted in Europe, many Americans wanted continued support for isolationism and supported the idea of American neutrality. In fact, many Americans viewed the conflict as a European one and did not want to get dragged into a world war.

Woodrow Wilson

The war ragged in Europe through 1914 and 1915 as the Triple Entente (Britain, France and Russia) fought the Central Powers (Germany, Austria-Hungary and Italy) along the Western and Eastern Fronts. During this time, the United States remained neutral under the Presidency of Woodrow Wilson. By remaining neutral, the United States attempted to continue its trade with both members of the Triple Entente and members of the Central Powers. As the United States was a nation of many recent immigrants from Europe, it had citizens that identified with both sides of the war. This made it increasingly difficult for Woodrow Wilson’s administration to openly support trade with one side over the other and decided that it was in the national interest of the country to continue to remain neutral. In the end, Britain and Germany would force the United States into joining the First World War in 1917.

As a wartime strategy, Britain sought to stop Germany’s trade and carried out a naval blockade against German merchant ships in the North Sea and North Atlantic. The war caused American trade to increase dramatically to both Britain and France but the British naval blockade against Germany caused American trade to the Central Powers to decrease. Ultimately, this could not be tolerated by the Germans and Germany responded by carrying out submarine warfare in the North Atlantic against the British navy and merchant ships.

The clearest example of German submarine warfare during World War I and its impact was the sinking of the Lusitania in May of 1915. The ship left New York city on May 1st, 1915 and was bound for Liverpool, England. While the Lusitania was a passenger liner that operated in the North Atlantic it was also being used, as was common practice at the time, to ferry war time munitions and supplies from American to Britain. Germany was aware of the munition and supplies aboard the ship and on May 7th, 1915, a German submarine fired on the Lusitania just off the coast of Ireland. In all, 1,924 aboard the ship died as it took just 18 minutes for the passenger liner to sink beneath the surface. The dead included 114 Americans who had been aboard the ship at the time.

Sinking of the Lusitania

The German attack angered Americans and public opinion in the United States began to grow for the country to join the war effort in Europe on the side of the British and French. Ultimately, continued German submarine warfare and the growing anger among American citizens caused the United States to enter the First World War on April 6th, 1917 on the side of its allies: Britain, France and Russia.